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From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free. Jacques Yves Cousteau
The sea is the universal sewer. Jacques Yves Cousteau
I am looking forward enormously to getting back to the sea again, where the overstimulated psyche can recover in the presence of that infinite peace and spaciousness. The sea is like music. It has all the dreams of the soul within itself and sounds them over. Carl Jung
Say, it’s only a paper moon,
Sailing over a cardboard sea. Yip Harburg, song 1933
Sea levels across the world have risen and fallen over time. Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey II, BBC 2012
The largest animals there have ever lived have lived in the sea. Brian Cox, Wonders of Life IV: Size Matters, BBC 2013
Ancient monuments deep underwater. A once thriving metropolis. Now half a mile under the sea. Lost cities submerged for thousands of years. Ancient Aliens s2e3: Underwater World, History 2010
Are underwater monuments examples of mankind’s earliest civilisations? Or is there evidence of skills far beyond that of primitive man? And if so, where did they come from? ibid.
What evidence lies deep underwater? ibid.
The legend of the lost city of Atlantis ... Across the Atlantic lies the island chain of the Bahamas. Just south-east of Florida. Here in 1968 Archaeologist J Manson Valentine believed he’d found part of Atlantis when he discovered an unusual rock formation off the coast of North Bimini Island. ibid.
Cuba ... Symmetrical stone structures deep below the water. Remarkably they were over a half-mile down. ibid.
Yonaguni, Japan: this small island is at the westernmost tip of the Japanese archipelago ... A massive complex of stone formation hidden just sixty feet beneath the surface. ibid.
Is it a coincidence that the Earth’s twenty-fifth parallel north cuts through both the Bermuda Triangle and the Dragon’s Triangle? ibid.
But could as ancient astronaut theorists believe these strange Dogu figures really be a primitive interpretation of a space suit or a diving suit? ibid.
Off the coast of India – In 2001 researchers from India’s Oceanic Institute detected anomalies on the Gulf of Khambhat. The images revealed an enormous network of stone buildings now shrouded in mud and sand, and covering an area of five square miles. ibid.
Some believe a link between the submerged ruins and extraterrestrials can be found in another set of texts known as India’s Sangam literature. ibid.
The Andes Mountains, Peru. Here at an elevation of 12,500 feet lie the dark waters of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable body of water in the Earth. In August 2000 an Italian team of divers and archaeologists launched an underwater investigation of the legendary lake. There submerged under one hundred feet of water the team uncovered traces of a paved road, a stone terrace and a wall nearly half a mile long. ibid.
The painter’s fascination with the sea and ships led him to paint more storm scenes and shipwrecks. J M W Turner, Sky Arts 2013
Two ships and a handful of men. The men are the heroes. The heroines are the ships. The only villain is the sea. The cruel sea that man has made more cruel. The Cruel Sea 1952 starring Jack Hawkins & Donald Sinden & Denholm Elliott & John Stratton & Stanley Baker & Liam Redmond & Bruce Seton & Meredith Edwards & Virginia McKenna & June Thorburn & Megs Jenkins et al, director Charles Frend, captain’s commentary
They keep saying that sea levels are rising an’ all this. It's nowt to do with the icebergs melting, it’s because there’s too many fish in it. Get rid of some of the fish and the water will drop. Simple. Basic science. Karl Pilkington
Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain’s majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea. George Carlin
The ocean is by no means uniform. Differences in depth, temperature, sunlight and currents pose particular challenges. One and a half miles down these hydrothermal vents spew out superheated water at 450° Centigrade from cracks in the Earth’s crust. Despite the enormous pressure, total darkness and scoldingly high temperatures the ancestors of all life may have evolved from a place just like this. David Attenborough, Life e8: Creatures of the Deep, BBC 1979
Humboldt squid: two meters long they have a local reputation as maneaters ... This is a pack of hundreds. ibid.
A swarm of one hundred thousand stinging jellyfish might seem a daunting prospect for a predator. But not for this one. A huge Fried Egg Jellyfish. It is a killer. Its weapons are harpoon-like cells that cover its tentacles. ibid.
These are spider crabs. They spend most of their lives in deep water. But once a year off the coast of southern Australia a quarter of a million crabs set off on a long journey to the shallows. ibid.
This cuttlefish is one of the cleverest animals in the ocean. She has a very large brain. In fact it’s larger for her size than that of most fish or reptiles ... Cuttlefish can make very dramatic changes to their skin pattern in order to signal their moods. ibid.
The coastal waters of British Columbia: home to this four-metre long Pacific Giant Octopus. She is a formidable predator. ibid.
Out of the depths comes one of the largest and most aggressive star-fish in the ocean – Pycnopodia, a giant sea-star the size of a dustbin lid. It’s a hunter. ibid.
The most impressive invertebrates may seem to be the giants but in fact it’s some of the smallest that can make the biggest impact. Every square inch of this island has been created by an every-growing living super-structure – a coral reef. It’s taken thousands of years to reach this size. And it all began with creatures smaller than a pin-head. ibid.
Corals are in fact extremely aggressive. And will fight to the death to expand their territory ... Then, just once a year, a few days after the November full moon, the corals take part in a mass spawning event. ibid.
Life began in the sea. David Attenborough, Life on Earth V: Conquest of the Waters, BBC 1979
A number of different ways of propelling themselves through the water. ibid.
The Hammerhead shark is said to be particularly sensitive. ibid.
The Ray has flattened its body to an extreme degree. ibid.
The Basking Shark grows to a length of fifteen metres. ibid.
Open water fish often form vast shoals. ibid.
Many species have never been filmed. ibid.
Salmon … a paragon among fish. ibid.
Dwarfed by the vast expanse of the open ocean the biggest animal that has ever lived on our planet. The Blue Whale – thirty metres long, and weighing over two hundred tons ... Its tongue weighs as much as an elephant. David Attenborough, The Blue Planet s1e1: Introduction, BBC 2001
Our planet is a blue planet; over 70% of it is covered by the sea. The Pacific Ocean alone covers half the globe. ibid.
Sardines: common dolphins are coming in from the open ocean to join in the feast. ibid.
Here in the South Atlantic the seas are the roughest on the planet. ibid.
The moon too has a great influence on life in the oceans. ibid.
A journey to the very bottom of the deep sea, to an alien world never revealed before. It’s home to some of the strangest animals on Earth. David Attenborough, The Blue Planet s1e2: The Deep
A twilight zone, a weird world of gloom where many animals have become transparent. ibid.
There’s a rich variety that live nowhere else but in the deep sea. ibid.
Deep sea jellies ... a spectacular firework display of colour. ibid.
The gulper eel ... can swallow prey as big as themselves. ibid.
Some fish in the dark zone have developed headlights. ibid.
The sun’s rays only have a direct effect on the top one hundred metres or so of the ocean. ibid.